i believe in fairies...

ooh it's been a bit quiet over here! so here's a little catch-up of what i've been up to!

i got a (very hard to photograph) peter pan tattoo :)

and turned twenty two!

i made just a few fabric boxes

along with a couple of foxes

i did the fine and dandy craft fair

and treated myself to some dotty boots, they're quite the pair!

i've had a little fabric play

and started the quilt red letter day

… watched this movie many, many times…

so much so that it's got me talking in rhymes!

rachael x

p.s oh and there is a giveaway over on my Facebook, why not go and take a look :)

how now brown cow and a 'funny' story

the last couple of weeks has been all about college work and yet i still managed to leave it all to the night before it needed handed in, you can't say I'm a procrastinator.

now do you fancy a giggle? here is a story about balance and co-ordination - my mum decided that she wanted a mp3 player but i convinced her to get an iPod. so yesterday i went to argos to get an iPod, it was all going great, i picked the one i wanted, payed for it and collected it, all simple enough until i was leaving the shop. you know how they have that box of catalogues in the middle of the floor? well i wasn't paying attention to my walking and managed to very gracefully fall straight into the box of catalogues! ooh it was soo embarrassing, needless to say i quickly got up and walked fast out of the shop and that is the let time i shall ever go there again!

time for sewing stuff now if you can stop giggling! it seems i have a thing for making cushions at the minute, but when inspiration strikes, go with it.

*this post contains brown fabric*

i love, love, love brown fabric right now, i just cannot get enough of it! which is the inspiration for my cushion

cows and brown fabric - match made in heaven. this is harriet the highland coo. it all started with this sketch one day in college and i knew harriet had to become fabric-y

i really like her hair, even though i kind of just want to flick it out of her eyes. and her strawberry nose, can you tell i really like my new cushion?

when i finished the appliqué it felt like the cushion was missing something, and i couldn't figure out what. then one day i was tidying i found my most favourite pink flowery fabric and i just knew it had to be the binding. i have a love/hate relationship with binding, i love how it looks, but hate sewing it on, anybody else feel the same about binding?

rachael x

my sewing room

just after christmas i was sitting wondering what to do and then it came to me re-decorate the toy-room (the sewing room) good idea, huh?

so i started stripping the wallpaper (tee-hee) and moving all my fabric and sew-y stuff to get ready for painting - heads up! get ready for a picture heavy post, but sure everyone loves pictures!!

this is what i found when all the wallpaper came off, it's 24/2/1928 and it says "papered by jack morgan painter and decorator 'something i can't read' connswater belfast"

an in progress shot, this is how i rang in the new year, i really know how to party hard!! i love the aqua colour

here is the only before picture i have, the room went from being blue to a slightly different colour of blue, are you ready to see the transformation? i'll give you a guided tour around it.

this is the scene you first see when you walk into the room, yes you are greeted by a big roll of waddling, the perfect greeting.

next the ironing board (which desperately needs a new cover) and  my pretty picture wall, it'll be fun to iron now and be able to look at the pictures, which i'm sure i'll add to.

the little quilt-y corner, yes i finally sewed the binding on my little improv mini, this is also the think-y corner, see that roll of paper on the wall? thats's for all my great ideas (haha)

i got rid of the green sofa, i loved it but it was just an excuse for me to messily throw my wip's, unfolded fabric, basically everything, it became like the sofa of doom. a quick trip to ikea quickly fixed that and voila! little cubby holes and boxes to cleverly disguise all the messy fabric and wip's

now i have somewhere to display my baskets of wool, which i will use...someday

the fabric closet also got a little clear-out and tidy, now who knows if it will stay like this i'm guessing no, but i'm gonna try and keep it like this.

my most favourite-est shelf.

i knew that in my 'new' room that i wanted somewhere to be able to take pictures, so this is my picture wall for all my photos for etsy and the blog. that chair will eventually be covered to make it pretty and not like something from the olden day, you know, like the 70's

the swing table! this would be probably be the best part of the decorating, another trip to ikea and i now have a big table, i have to say it is quite a luxury, before my sewing machine sat on my cutting mat, so i had to lift it off to cut and then lift it back up to sew, i know such an inconvenience haha i also added some more cubby holes, em because i lot of crap stuff.

a close-up of my pictures, each month at the fine and dandy market i would treat myself to a picture from one of the many talented exhibitors! you should really go and see for yourselves.

the whole room, with an absolutely delightful view of not one, but two sheds! but that's a good thing because then no-one can come and look through the window at me dancing em i mean sewing... now the only thing is to go and sew in it! except i have no inclination to sew anything, go figure haha

i hope i haven't bored you too much with all my pictures, well done if you made it to the end, it was a reallllly long post :)

rachael x

penelope the dinosaur

another craft fair finished and i have to say i LOVED it, it really was a brilliant day!! i just love the whole craft fair experience!
this was a new market the fine and dandy market and it will be held in the crescent arts centre on the last sunday of each month. it was run by the amazing kelli, she was just fantastic and created such a lovely fair.
everyone you meet is so wonderful at craft fairs, it's not even about selling (well it is haha) but that's only half of it, it's about the other crafters that you get to talk with and to learn new stuff.
actually that's not entirely true the absolute best thing about doing a craft fair is all the items you get to buy when you're there.

pretty fabric!

first up is my absolutely, totally fan-dabby-dosey picture from Smudge Illustrations i fell in love with her work in st. georges market in belfast and i just had to commission an original, you should go and visit Ciara at st. georges to see how brilliant her work is!! i even think i'll have to buy another original  :)

and penelope the dinosaur from the lovely Pictureofgrace. now i'm 21 and don't really need a purple dinosaur but she was just too cute to not come home with me. penelope is my sewing room buddy and you'll find her wandering around all the fabric :)

i also had the nicest vanilla cupcakes from the little cupcakery ni i didn't get a picture of them because they were so delicious i just had to eat them straight away!!

i'll be back at the fine and dandy market next month too! yaaayyy!!

rachael x

4 a.m bobsleigh

i find the writing part soo hard, i should just post pretty pictures instead of even writing stuff, buuttt i'm a talker sooo i'll continue rambling on :)

after taking 2 of judiths classes i just had to sign up for a 3rd cause they are just so super duper fun and i really think that everybody everywhere should go to judiths classes!! this time it was for a quilt, oohhh!!! the ferry floor quilt, double oohhh!! it's a layer cake quilt, which was good cause i have loads of layer cakes and never seem to use them. so after umming and ahhing for ages i decided to use my long hoarded sunkissed layer cake with aqua for the sashing bits.

purdy, ain't it?? i'm really pleased with how it turned out, it's so summery and pink :) and people i have discovered hand stitched binding!! why did no one tell me how fun it is?? i'm completely hooked and will probably never machine stitch it again.

i quilted it in swirly blue loops (using aurifil of course!! is there anything else??) i think quilting is the most fun part along with stitching the binding on. i like that the swirly-nee soften the sharp lines

as soon as my mum saw this quilt she announced it was hers, so it now resides on her bed. i'm really happy with is quilt and it was such a great class!

right have to go and get packed for my craft fair tomorrow :)

rachael x

flopsy. mopsy. cottontail and peter

: :  my new quilt (big reveal on friday!)

: : doodles

: : house cushion top

: : circus cushion top

: : spending the day playing with buttons :)

rachael x

linking up with fabric tuesday

500 days is more than a year

see the zip. be the zip. you are the zip.

after being scared of zips for way too long i decided to tackle them!! at the craft fair, nearly everybody asked if i had oilcloth pouches for make-up or wash bags. so i thought 'hmm that could be an idea' and after many, many failed attempts and patterns, i did it! i have successfully made 1 oilcloth pouch.

it looks absolutely massive here, it's not it's about 6 inches high (the sewing machine is just tiny) do ya want to know a secret?? zips actually aren't that hard at all once you understand that you're sewing a zip.

in fact zips are quite fun to sew, so if you've never tried, go and sew a zip its fun :) 

i had better get sewing i keep forgetting i have a craft fair next weekend. 

question: i have done oilcloth on the inside and outside, would it be better only on the inside? or should i do both on the inside and outside??

rachael x

linking up with fabric tuesday

giraffes can't cough

i've only been awake for about 4 hours today! the craft fair was this past weekend so all of this last week was spent getting all the finishing touches ready and getting organized which is sooo hard cause i'm totally not an organized person!!

here is my colourful stall ain't it purdy? i absolutely loved the experience and its great to know that everybody who has ever lived in northern ireland is a truly exceptional quilter!! i really never knew there where so many quilters, it really is fascinating :)

i met some really lovely people and they are what made the whole experience so great! being my first craft fair it was a learning curve for me and i learnt so much thanks to lizzieB she truly is just so lovely and deborah at hampton blue (she has the cutest stuff i treated myself to a moomin purse) this weekend i learnt some real pearls of wisdom so all you quilters listen up

"any old fool can do it!"

while i didn't do particularly well, i met some really fantastic people and learnt alot, i've already started looking for my next fair to do because it really was fun minus just a few little bits :)

the best part was the mud, i'm not a girly-girl far from it so i absolutely loved the mucky fields and just getting all muddy!

rachael x

linking up with lets get acquainted 

heffalumps and woozles

what do you do when you've lost your seam ripper in the green sofa of doom?

you go searching for it and find bondaweb instead and completely forget about the seam ripper and just accept that it is gone forever!!

bondaweb is always fun to play with, but it first has to give me a headache trying to remember how to use it, i can't work backwards.

have you read the suitcase kid by jacqueline wilson? there was a toy rabbit called raddish in it and this was the inspiration for my cushion cover.

the border fabric is the new anna maria horner linen, its great to work with. i embroidered little clouds to add to the cuteness factor.

while the bondaweb was out i decided to make another and you can't go wrong with a 'home sweet home' cushion

sketchy applique is so fun i really like the 'primitive-ness' of it. so two more to add to the craft fair pile, which is fast approaching and i've still got loads to do, eek!!

rachael x

linking up with crazy mom quilts 

c, what if i can't??

has it really been a week? it seems like far longer but also that it was yesterday, everything's a bit floopy at the moment.
i have been sewing non stop it seems but yet i have very little to show, my 'sewing room' is a fabric-y mess of projects in various stages of completion, it's an organised mess just how i like it!
this week i'm focusing on binding

i have to say binding is probably my least favourite part, but it's pretty so i don't really mind it. can you tell i have a thing for stripey bindings??

a boy quilt, this was fun as i'm always doing girly quilts i thought i'd mix it up and make a boy one, i was quite surprised to find that i had enough boy-y fabrics, this is awaiting binding and then its done!

prairie points are so fun i think i'll be adding them to a lot of projects in the near future, they're also totally adorable! this one is also just awaiting its binding.

just for fun if you fancy a giggle (and don't mind a bit of rude language) you should totally watch this video and who says women can't drive? haha

linking up with lets get acquainted at gemini stitches

rachael x

liberty

it's kinda fun not sleeping you get to a point where everything just becomes 'squirly' its interesting and did i mention fun!! on one of my sleepless nights i decided to pull out my liberty fabric and some linen and see what happened, with no real plan i started cutting i ended up with log cabins, my sleepy brain thought was quite surprised

i hardly ever use my liberty fabric it really is so soft and perfect paired with the linen (if i do say so my self) i ended up cutting enough for two cushions, so i made another one

very similar only on this one i switched the order. i did minimal quilting just stitched in the ditch (hey that rhymes) so as to go with the simple design, they both are about 19 inches a good size to be super comfy (that's if they're allowed to be sat on)

another tick off my list and they're all ready to go to the craft fair, all my sewing is craft fair sewing at the mo so prepare yourselves for lots and lots of pictures :) yaayy!!

oh aren't they pretty together??

linking up with crazy mom quilts

rachael x

*oh and i've decided that my titles will have absolutely nothing to do with the post, for instance todays title is a brand of yoghurt...